Light and Shadows
Chapter 1 Things were going as normal in the Fairy Tail guild hall. Some were playing, some were drinking, others were brawling causing much destruction. Yup, everything's right with the world. It was one announcement that stopped everyone in their tracks. "You idiots caused even more destruction!" Makarov, Fairy Tail's master shouted startling the formerly partying guild members. "Well in any case, I have an event for all of you." He said ignoring the magic council as always. "You may all be members of the same guild, but you barely know your fellow guildmates that you don't work with. Therefore, I'm forcing all of you to team up with people that you haven't worked with yet and go on a job. Your partners will be randomly selected by a lottery." On a magic floating board above the guild master, names began appearing on the board. At one point, it stopped. Dantaiga Hodue and Eugene Woodland. "Who's that I wonder." Eugene said looking at the board. Dantaiga stands up while staring at the board. "Who's that Eugene?" He looks through the random guild members to find Eugene. "What's with the fancy clothing?" Eugene asked appearing in front of him all of a sudden."It's unecessary in a fight. All it really does is make you stand out. Man, I got this guy as my partner." Dantaiga looks at Eugene. "How about this, lets have a fight after we leave this building. You will see that these clothes can't stop me." "I don't mind." Eugene said with a grin. "In fact I think it'll be fun." As the two left, the other guild members heard and decided to watch the fight. "Don't worry, I won't kill you in this match." Eugene said as he drew his bokken. "How about this." Dantaiga said while drawing his sword out. "I will try not to defeat you in 3 seconds like many others i have met in my way here." "You're getting really cocky." Eugene said. "Don't hold back now." Eugene began to get into a stance. "Ghost Road." Dantaiga catches Eugene in half-way. "Kan." He slices Eugene swiftly. "Zan." Dantaiga's sword started shining. "Kin." The sword starts glowing. CRACK To Dantaiga's shock, Eugene began to crumble into tiny pieces. "Are you sure you should be showing your hand so soon?" Eugene said from behind him. "You shouldn't underestimate me." Another Eugene said to Dantaiga's right. "Can you guess who's who?" Yet another Eugene said from Dantaiga's left. "Is this wood?" Dantaiga asks. "I hope it is, so i could use the man of tree." He says reffering to one of his own magic's. "Ice Dragon's Blizzard!" Eugene shouted from above as he blasted it at Dantaiga. "This is boring." Dantaiga tells Eugene while some green rods apears to be in Eugene's body. "Rapture Wave." The rods swells Eugene's magic and makes it explode. A gas then came from the body which turned out to be fake and covered Dantaiga before he was punched in the gut by Eugene with a flaming fist. "You really have to think a bit before acting." Eugene's voice could be heard in the gas cloud. "That gas that you just breathed in has a toxin that'll paralyze you. If you had breathed in more, it would have stopped your heart. I'm fine because my body is immune to poison." "Don't worry about me." Dantaiga says while his body is engulfed in lightning. "I can beat you anyway, i just don't go serious on someone who's in the same guild." He says while runing around Eugene. "Tsuriakari Ryu, Nine Gates." Dantaiga says and stops moving, then his lightning forms into closed nine doors that extends into gates. "Release." Then the gates open up and nine dragon made from lightning comes out. "Lets see what you will do." "Forgive me for doing this." Eugene said to the nine dragons before he put his hands together. "Itadakimasu." Eugene then ran over and began sucking them in and swallowing them. "I don't have any respect for anyone who can't go all out in a competition. And at this rate, you could die." Eugene said as lightning coursed through his body. Dantaiga walks at Eugene. "Did you just really did that?" He draws a pentagram in the air. "Tsuriakari Ryu, Five Stars and One Moon." Dantaiga dropped his sword and started burning up. "If it's that then,,, Bomb Cactus Machine Gun!" Eugene said as several cacti fired needles that exploded on impact due to Dantaiga already on fire. Dantaiga appears to be behind Eugene with his sword. "Release." The lightning in Eugene's body paralyses and shocks him. "Nine Gates has nine releases, don't expect it to be THAT easy to beat me." Dantaiga stabs Eugene in the leg. "Lumberjack." Dantaiga's body transforms into wood. CHOMP Eugene had bitten him and actually ripped off a part of Dantaiga's body. "I know now it's my victory." Eugene said. "By the way, you taste terrible. It must be the arrongance." Dantaiga laughs at Eugene. "Nope, the wood is fused with blue flare and lightning magic, you just went for the lose." "I'm a Dragon Slayer, I can eat anything." Eugene replied. "What I was really aiming for was your heart." Suddenly, Dantaiga felt a pain in his chest as if it was about to be crushed. "You feel that? That's your heart actually being restricted by my plants. If I continue, you'll die. If you remove them forcefully, you will also die. It's strange isn't it? My magic is filled with life yet I'm nicknamed the dragon slayer of death because of my skill." "It seems you didn't get it right" Dantaiga laughed. "When i used my Rapture Wave, i implanted a little something into you. It even might be a bomb. And in this form, if i die, i get back to my original one as a living being." "Um, did you forget that you hit my clone with that Rapture thing?" Eugene asked confused. "In your case, those deadly toxins would still be in your body even when you get back to your original one. But I have to say, I'm impressed that you'd be able to come back to life at all after that. Maybe I should call you zombie-kun." Dantaiga stares at Eugene. "My, my, Mr. Woody talking." He spins one time. "How about this, Mr. Woody, you didn't notice, i used it on your whole gang of you. But you were dumb enough to not see it." "What gang?" Eugene asked tilting his head in confusion. Then he finnaly realized what he was talking about. "Oh, you mean the illusions? That's one of my specialties. You actually haven't hit me once." Dantaiga walks at Eugene and takes out a hilt while sheating his normal sword. "I will beat you, with only this hilt." "Wow, stubborn aren't you?" Eugene said with an anime sweat drop. "Might as well use that." Just after saying that, ice began covering the floor. "Come at me." Dantaiga directly looks at Eugene's eyes. "Look behind you." "Better end this childish game before the zombie gets a big head." Eugene said as he activated some magic. Suddenly, Dantaiga stopped moving completely and his body reverted to normal. "Looks like you lose. I've made it so you can't move your body nor use your magic. Now that your body is back to normal, I could kill you without you coming back to life." "I guess." Dantaiga lets go of the hilt. "I lost fourth time in a row, this sucks. I guess i will have to try harder next time." "You just need to learn from your mistakes." Eugene said as he put away his bokken. "And also, try not to rely on whatever powerful magic I'm sure you have. What would happen if you lost your magic just like you did against me? Your swordsmanship isn't really that up to par and your actual combat style is too predictable and flashy." "We will fight later anyway." Dantaiga said still paralyzed. "And you haven't seen enough of my swordmanship to judge." "Even if that's so, your overall battle capability is pretty low." Eugene said. "If I actually used my full power, you'd be a bloody mess. There's also tons of people on a higher level than me so get off your high horse and stop being so arrogant." Dantaiga opens a page with a bookmark. "I guess you can't even read if you only care about battling." "Actually because of Erza, my reading level became above that of a university student." Eugene said in response before shivering a little at the memory of Erza teaching him. "Also, I have a doctor's PhD because I accidentally took a doctor's exam and aced it. I was able to win not because of my combat ability but also with my brain." "What next, someone broke your glasses?" Dantaiga asked. "What are glasses?" Eugene asked confused. "A thing that helps you see better." Dantaiga answers. "What kind of idiot would ask?" "Before a few months ago, I was living in the middle of a forest by myself except for Moss, my Exceed." Eugene replied. "Of course I wouldn't know much about normal humans and how they live." Dantaiga smiles. "I guess i will have to ask Erza to teach you more." He says. Suddenly Dantaiga heard a squish sound underneath his feet. It was a strawberry cake. "YOU DARE SQUISH MY STRAWBERRY CAKE!" Erza screamed charging at Dantaiga who didn't seem to know what happened. Eugene smirked knowing that he made an illusion for the cake. Nonetheless, Erza began beating the crap out of Dantaiga. "Looks like it'll be fun to work with you." Eugene said to him as he was still being attacked. "Yeah it will be fun." Dantaiga says while appearing behind Eugene only to be attacked by Erza once again almost strangling him. A few hours later.... The two mages had arrived at where the job had specified. While walking on the streets, Dantaiga's fancy clothing and looks caught the attention of many people especially the ladies who started to swoon. "Your'e popular." Eugene said stated matter of factly seeing the reactions of the girls. "Oh don't worry about me." Dantaiga said while reading his book. "Do you know why they don't notice me?" Eugene asked. Dantaiga looked around and indeed saw that it looked like nobody but himself could see Eugene. It was like he was invisible. Seeing that Dantaiga didn't know the answer, Eugene answered. "That is because I'm a shadow to your light. You attract so much attention that it takes it away from others. That is the only true skill you seem to have. This will work to my advantage." "My true skill is to attract?" Dantaiga starts wondering about what Eugene said. "And my skill is the opposite where I don't attract any attention and it's become amplified due to you." Eugene said. "This will also work in terms of our fighting abilities since yours seem to be more flashy and destructive than effective while mine are the opposite except in destruction if I'm mad." Dantaiga looks at Eugene while putting a bookmark in the page he's reading. "Do you realize that you just gave me an idea?" "Well, I can tell you got an idea from your facial expression." Eugene replied. "I had an idea of my own which included you getting the enemies' attention and I would finish the job." "Lets not talk about this yet." Dantaiga says while his book dissapears. "So where's our destination again?" "In that cave outside of town." Eugene replied. "I scouted it earlier while we were surrounded by those girls. It's big but if we cause too much of a disturbance, we'll be attacked by the S-class monsters that reside in there. Also, there's a dark guild taking residence in there for reasons unknown." "You're gold, bud." Dantaiga says to Eugene. "Your skills are quite good." "Reconnaissance is a basic part of the mission." Eugene replied. "Without proper information, the mission could fail. I'm surprised you didn't see me run off." "I saw, don't worry." Dantaiga says while yawning. "This is getting boring, i need some action." "I'm back, sorry to keep you waiting." a person said running to them with a green Exceed. the strange thing was that the Exceed looked exactly like Eugene. "Hey Futa, don't worry you didn't take long." Eugene replied. "This must be the fancy dressed person." The Exceed said. "Moss, this is Dantaiga the heir to some rich family or something." Eugene said. "Anyway, let's go" "An exceed, that kind of reminds me of something." Dantaiga says while he looks like he's about to tell a story of a lot of pages. "Oh right, we forgot to come back together!" Eugene and Futa said at the same time and after a brief flash of light, they were on person again. "Eugene can split into two people when he wants." Moss explained to Dantaiga. "Well, technically I split my soul into two and put one half in a plant which then becomes Futa." Eugene explained further. "Futa was the one doing the reconnaisance. Now let's get going." "Happy to hear that we're going." Dantaiga says "I hope that there won't be weaklings." "I should be saying that to you." Eugene said. "Either way, that's not the way you should be talking. You're reminding me of some of the dark mages I've fought." "Well, would a dark mage call you Mister Woody?" Dantaiga asks Eugene. "No, I was talking about your arrogance." Eugene replied. "You're not very humble and you don't have any skills to back up your words." "Lets just go" Dantaiga says. "Okay, just try to keep up." Eugene said as he began to run towards their destination. to keep up." Eugene said as he began to run towards their destination. Chapter 2 The two mages plus Moss son reached the cave's entrance. Unfortunately, they had to get out of the way of a herd of Cavedons stampeding out. "That's weird, Cavedons almost never leave their cave." Eugene said with surprise. "And certainly not in a huge panic like that." "I can sense someone big comming up." Dantaiga says while taking out his sword. "You guys should be on guard too." "We're always on guard." Eugene said. "We've had to grow up like that in a constant life or death situation. We just have to investigate now." "I guess." Dantaiga said as he turns into a little mouse made from wood. "Why are you a mouse?" Eugene asked in confusion "I'm gonna investigate this place." Dantaiga said to Eugene. "You can be a ninja like you are." He says. "I've already done that." Eugene said. "By the way, there's a trap right next to you." He then pulled Dantaiga by the tail away from his spot before throwing a rock to trigger the trap which would have impaled Dantaiga almost instantly. Dantaiga starts transforming back. "Well, you, are one fast guy." He looks back and tranforms back. "By the way, it hurt." "What's better, having your tail pulled or getting stabbed by several things?" Eugene asked as he continued forward. "Let's get going." "I don't have a tail." Dantaiga said sadly. "It was replaced with my tongue." He continued. "The magic allows me to use telephathy." "Come on mouse boy." Eugene called from inside the cave. Dantaiga comes into the cave an starts trembling. "I can sense so many strong people here." Eugene began sensing the life energies of the area. "I can see 5 bodies with a high amount of magic energy. They each have the level of at least S class mages. Get ready." Eugene then drew out his bokken and prepared to fight. "I has swords, i'm not scared." Dantaiga said getting more scared. "I hope we won't get thrown into a dump." he said while taking out the hilt. "You're a terrible liar." Eugene said with a smirk. "What, they never taught you to be brave in that fancy home of yours?" "Well i guess you can go hiding, i'll distract them." Dantaiga angrily says. "And atleast make sure to touch any of them before they die!" He says while the hilt starts glowing and a wooden blade pops on the hilt. "Tsuriakari Ryu, Nine Gates." Nine gates made of lightning apears behind Dantaiga before Eugene hit him making him dispel the spears. "Idiot, they haven't realized our location." Eugene said in annoyance. "We'll be risking our lives and the mission if you keep making such a ruckus and such flashy moves." "I sense one running in!" Dantaiga yells at Eugene while being angry at him. "If you wouldn't have dispelled my magic, i would have power to fight." "That flashy stuff you call power is a joke." Eugene said as he snapped his fingers entrapping the incoming enemy in one swift movement using plants as tough as steel. "You keep showing your hand too early, even Natsu's better in this aspect. Anyway, we should get some information from this guy. He has the mark of the dark guild we're after." "And I hope that isn't that guild." Dantaiga says. "Stop whining and let's go." Eugene said after knocking the man out. "I just figured out where the resr of them are. I wonder if you can handle the things from here on?" As Dantaiga was about to say something, he got knocked out by a man who hid in the shadows. However, he did not notice Eugene who could only stay hidden so that both of them wouldn't be caught. Eugene silently followed after the men who took away Dantaiga, thinking they'll lead him to their leader. Soon after, they put Dantaiga in a cell with a jutsu shiki around it so that he couldn't use magic. "You just stay in there while I notify the boss that a rat like you sneaked in." The man said before laughing. "I mean seriously, did you really think that you could face an entire dark guild on your own?" Dantaiga looks at the man and growls at him and ends up saying. "I can beat your stupid guild alone, and what do you have to say, backstabber?" "Go ahead and try breaking out first, then you can try taking us out!" The guard said with a laugh as he walked out of the prison area not noicing Eugene nearby. WHACK "What an idiot." Eugene said as he knocked the guard out taking his keys. He then went over and unlocked the cell allowing Dantaiga to be free. "Come on let's go." "We can go as long as i don't have to be in this cell." Dantaiga says. "Now where can we find their guild master?" He asks Eugene thinking that he spied the whole area. "Up there." Eugene replied simply pointing up towards what seemed to be a building in the ceiling of the cavern 10 stories from their location. "There's no stairs but it's an easy jump." "Thats easy?" Dantaiga says. "Thats not easy, thats super easy." Dantaiga gets ready to jump. With ease, the two mages jumped from ledge to ledge all the way to the top. "Now where to go now?" Eugene asked as they came to a crossroad. "We can't exactly waste time here." "We'll split up." Dantaiga says. "You can decide where i go, and where you go." "And let you get captured again?" Moss commented remembering earlier. "I'll test the paths then." Eugene said as he aimed arrows at the different paths before firing them. He listened for a bit before deciding on one. "This one has the least enemies and the least traps." He said pointing to the path to their left. "Remember not to get caught this time." Eugene said as he began walking.